Olive Kitteridge

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and an Emmy-Award Winning Mini Series! In a voice more powerful and compassionate than ever before, New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Strout binds together thirteen rich, luminous narratives into a book with the heft of a novel, through the presence of one larger-than-life, unforgettable character: Olive Kitteridge. Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition–its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.

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Published Sep 30, 2008

336 pages

Average rating: 7.13

329 RATINGS

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LA Westside Women’s Book Club

A group of women who meet once a month in Culver City to talk about books

Hip Chicks Book Club

A fun, casual book club for women of all ages in the NORTH COUNTY San Diego. We meet mostly in the Tri-City area, along the 78. ✨Est. January 2008✨

Morris County Book Club

A local book club that meets in-person once a month on the fourth Tuesday in the Conference Room at the Morris County Library in Whippany, NJ from 6:30-7:45 pm.

Please only join this book club if you plan on committing to reading the book club selection and attending the meetings each month.

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Community Reviews

What Bookclubbers are saying about this book

✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI

Readers say *Olive Kitteridge* showcases Elizabeth Strout's exceptional writing, praised for its rhythm and deep character exploration. Many appreciat...

K Olson
Jan 14, 2025
8/10 stars
This is a novel more about a person than about a plot. I found it a thought-provoking book with a lot of insight about life.
Khris Sellin
Jul 05, 2024
10/10 stars
Loved this book. Olive is an ornery old coot living in small-town Crosby, Maine, and she's at times funny, frustrating, irritating, infuriating, sympathetic, but you can't wait to find out what happens next, or, in some cases, what happened before. Told as a series of short stories, it also focuses on other people in the town, but Olive is the center of this universe.
njlbo1
Jul 18, 2023
4/10 stars
I don't really get why this won the Pulitzer. It was ok, but I didn't enjoy it. I don't really get how all the pieces fit together. I don't know...maybe I'm too shallow or this book's too deep.
Mary Pat Holt
Feb 05, 2026
6/10 stars
This book is actually a collection of short stories. I liked most of the stories but I don't see how all of them connected to each other. The main character throughout the book is Olive (although she is not in every story)and the book is about the townspeople around her in her small hometown in Maine. She is a crusty old woman. Maybe that is why it is a book of short stories-you can only take so much of Olive.
Janet Blanchard
Jan 18, 2026
6/10 stars
I did not enjoy the format: a series of short stories with the main character woven throughout the novel. My least favorite part of any book is the first chapter or so where you are learning the characters and the setting. After that, I enjoy reading their story. In this book, it was like first chapter after first chapter followed by first chapter, etc. Ugh. Takes too much mental energy to learn new characters every chapter. I also found the whole book to be depressing, without a real plot except living a day in the life of a dysfunctional, depressed, mean woman.

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